I have a few major things on my bucket list that I checked off in the last few years, but one that I had not yet accomplished was to ride the Moab White Rim Trail in a single day. I have ridden it before but in 3 days so I knew that although the trail is not that technical, with over 100 miles with no water sources, over 6,000 feet of climbing, sand, and pounding from the terrain, finishing it in a single day makes it a monster ride.

A couple of weeks ago my brother Mike called and let me know they were going to attempt to do the White Rim Trail in a day and thought they would have a spot for me. I knew my friend Jim would also be interested so I checked if there was a spot for him, which became available. It was short notice and no time to do much training on the mountain bike so it was relying on my road bike training. I figured I had a fairly good chance of finishing but was not fully confident. There was going to be a vehicle to follow the riders to carry water and food, and provide the only bail out if someone could not make it.

On Thursday Jim and I made the long drive from California up to our second home in Orem, Utah. On Friday afternoon, Mike came by to pick us up for the drive to Moab. Mike and Stu’s bike were in the bed so we loaded Jim and my bike on a rear mounted rack.

It was dark by the time we arrived in Moab. The four of us checked into the motel and then met Rian, Vint and Jack who had driven from Colorado. Jack had offered to drive Mike’s truck along the route and be our support vehicle, supporting the 6 riders (2 from California, 2 from Utah and 2 from Colorado). We decided at dinner to leave in the morning at 5 am. First stop was Denny’s, the only place open at that time to get some breakfast.

From Moab it is a 30 mile drive out to the White Rim Trail. The trail itself does not form a complete loop so there is a section of connecting the two ends of the trail with 14 miles on a dirt road and then about 7 miles on a paved road. Some people do the White Rim in a Day by skipping these miles, having someone shuttle them, but we wanted to do the entire loop and finish where we started. We drove the 14 miles out on the dirt road and parked at the top of the Horsetheif Trail Climb. Our biking route would then be going back on the 14 miles of dirt road to the highway.

Our plan was to start biking around 7 am, just before civil twilight. After getting a group shot we started at 7:15 am.

It was now barely light enough to start without a light. We rode the 14 mile dirt road section back to the highway and ended up with 1,600 feet of climbing. The sun was now fully up so we decided to take off some of the clothing and put it in the truck. That stop cost us 7 minutes. It had been decided earlier to send the truck ahead at this point so it could get down Shafer Trail before we did since we could descend faster than the truck. We biked another 7 miles on the paved highway to the park entrance where we had to stop and pay the entrance fee. There was no one manning the entrance booth to take the fee and we didn’t want to bike an extra 2 miles to the visitor center to pay it. Luckily we noticed a drop box we could put in our $5 each in an envelope. Soon after the entrance we made a left turn and headed down Shafer Trail. This is my least favorite part of the White Rim Trail. It is very rocky and a relatively long steep descent. On some sections, if you went off the trail, you would fall down 500 feet because it is cut into a cliff.

When we reached the bottom at 7:43 am there was no truck. Evidently Jack had not noticed the drop box and had driven over to the visitor center to pay the entrance fee. While waiting I took a few pictures of the riders.

After the truck arrived we topped off our water and headed out, for a total stopping time of 18 minutes at that spot. Vint and Rian went out ahead, and Mike and Stu were falling behind Jim and I. Jim was riding next to me. Just as soon as he made a comment to me that my mountain biking skills had improved, he hit a bump that knocked one hand off his handlebar and he was headed off the trail. He was able to recover just in time. I thought it would have made a better story if he had taken a fall, but with a trail of rocks and slickrock, no one wanted to fall on this ride.

At 34 miles into the ride we came upon Rian, who had stopped to wait. While waiting, Jim was checking his tires and realized the rear was too low of a pressure. It seemed like a good spot to wait for the other riders and the truck.

We were not quite sure what happened and it was 15 minutes before they showed up. I guess Jack was having a hard time driving the truck to keep up with the bikers so Mike was holding back. Jim pumped his tire with the floor pump from the truck and we were off, with a total stop of 18 minutes. Rian had estimated that we needed to average 10.5 mph and stop a total of 90 minutes, or we would not finish without lights. But we had now used up half of our total allocated 90 minutes stopping time and had only gone 17 miles from the start going down Shafer Trail. We clearly needed to pick up the pace and keep any more stopping to a minimum.

Our next stop was at mile 43 and we were off within 6 minutes. We had some periodic stops along the way and were doing similar quick stops. Keeping up a fast steady pace and short stops left little time to take any pictures but I was able to grab a few at some of the stops.

At White Crack (1:24 pm and mile 58), we did take a bit longer break. With 11 minutes I was able to gobble down a PB&J sandwich and drink a diet coke. After another 2 hours we finally reached Murphy (2:15 pm and 65 miles). I knew from past experience that this was one of the hills I would not be able to climb so I got off my bike at the bottom and started to walk up. It allowed me to grab one picture of Rian who was making it up the hill.

After another short stop at the top of Murphy we continued on. Mike had promised me no more climbing before the last climb so I kept saying, “hey I would call this a climb” every time we had to go up.

Actually we had some real serious climbing up Hardscrable (87 miles and 4:45 pm). This section proved too difficult for me so I was walking part of the climbs but Rian and some others were motoring up them. I could never figure how someone could climb such steep grades with rocks and loose dirt. It was amazing to watch.

We now started our descend down to the Green River. I recall last year this section had a lot of sand that I had to walk through this year I was able to stay on the bike. I could see several vehicles stopped on the road ahead. Some group, headed in the opposite direction as we were going, had got stuck trying to pull a loaded trailer with a truck that just had street tires on it. Cars had been stopped behind it. This is a steep section and no room for a vehicle to go around and it was difficult enough just to get my bike around the congestion. They kept trying to put some rocks under the truck tires to get traction but were failing. I decided to bike on down where I saw Vint waiting. It was now 5:16 pm and I was running out of daylight so Jim and I decided to go ahead. But that meant we could not retrieve any water or food, or even our lights, from the support vehicle. I had enough water and hoped we could make it before dark. Vint said he was going to wait for a short while to see if they freed the road, then catch us.

Finally we reached my favorite part of the trail, along the Green river. Jim was not feeling that great so we made one stop to take on some more food. While we were waiting Vint and Rian joined us and told us that the trailer had finally got freed so it should not be too long before our support vehicle could continue on. We all continued along together. Rian’s bottom bracket was making a real racket so I was not sure he would be able to make it. At last, at 6:13 pm we made it to the bottom of the final climb up Horsethief Trail. We had figured that we could bike without lights until 7 pm so I knew that I had plenty of time to make the climb. I was feeling fine enough so I went ahead and reached the parking lot at 6:35 pm, with plenty of time to spare before it was too dark to bike without a light. It was a great feeling to finish such an epic ride.

I grabbed my camera and took some pictures of the other riders as they finished right behind me.

It was getting cold now. Luckily I had kept a jacket in my Camelbak but that was not enough. Rian and Vint had both parked their cars at the top, but both had left their keys in the support vehicle. Fortunately Rian had a keypad so we could get in his car, out of the wind. Another gal was also parked there, waiting for her group who had also been doing the White Rim in a day. Some time passed and no sign of Mike and Stu or any of the riders she was waiting for. One of the riders from the other group finally came in and gave us an update that although the trailer had been freed, it got stuck again. I figured Mike had stayed back to watch his truck and would not leave until it had got through. We were not sure how long it was going to be now. Finally a second rider from the other group arrived and let us know that the trailer had finally cleared the climb. At 7:48 pm Mike and Stu arrived, wearing headlamps. Right behind them was the support vehicle.

It turned out to be ideal conditions. Although this time of the year meant less sunlight, the temperature was just about right for such a long ride. I had a fantastic time and the group of guys I was riding with made it extra special.

Later I downloaded the data from my Polar heart rate monitor. I had to adjust my distances because I didn’t have things set right for my mountain bike so I was reading 7% low on the distance. Mike got around 100 miles on his Garmin GPS so I used that as the total distance and adjusted things accordingly. Here is a elevation profile and some other data. Click the chart to view enlarged.

Date: 10/24/09
Distance: 100 miles
Climbing: 6,600 feet
Average Heart Rate: 132
Maximum Heart Rate: 169 (93% of Max HR)
Average Speed (rolling): 10.5 mph
Total Time: 11:20
Stopping Time: 1:50

Categories: Ultra Distance Events
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Some say that the easiest double century in our area is the spring Solvang Double. Yes, the climbing is less than most but with over 7,000 feet it is not quite like some real flat doubles in others parts of the country. Yes the total miles is a bit less than 200 miles. So for many people it is the best way to do your first double. But for me it is not so easy because, unlike with other doubles, people always want to know how fast you did it. So it is more like a race than an endurance event. I make matters worse for myself by starting with the 7:30 am group, which gets timed with the times posted on the Plant Ultra website.

Actually I was feeling rather prepared for this double, even though it occurs so early in the season. For the first time ever, it was not my first double century of the year because I rode the Death Valley Double one month early. Maybe I was feeling a bit too confident because in the same week Anne and I did a little too much speed work, setting 3 new PRs on tandem hill climbs on Henry Coe, Thomas Grade and Metcalf. I don’t mean PR for this year, I mean our best time ever. In retrospect, maybe that was not such a keen idea to do only days before doing a double.

Last year I completed Solvang under 10 hours. By under 10 hours I mean by about 20 seconds. I remember last year I felt I had a shot of breaking 10 hours about 40 miles from the end, which added a lot of pressure and drove me to push much harder than I might otherwise. I had no intention to do that again. I told everyone I was going to stop and smell the roses.

I showed up at 7:15 and they started a roll call of those who wanted to be timed. Joining me was Paul D, Gary F, and Barley and Susan.

Gary, Paul, Franz at start of Double

I knew I was in trouble when I saw four tandems there. One was Barley and Susan, who I had ridden with a week ago and knew they were fast.

Barley and Susan at start of Double

Right at 7:30 a group of 62 riders were off. The tandem in the photo is what I call the 4th tandem later in my story.

The reason why I knew I was in trouble with all those tandems is because two years ago I was not able to stay connected on the descent down Foxon Canyon, and lost the fast group at that point. Last year, with no tandems making the descent, I was able to keep with the lead group all the way to the second rest stop at 84 miles (we skipped the first rest stop).

This year keeping with the pack was a bit of a strain but not overly taxing. We when up a couple of short hills and I would move right up behind the tandems and stay on their wheel as they went down. The first descent down Foxon Canyon went alright but on the second one, the same spot I lost the wheel two years ago, proved too hard. No matter how hard I tried, I just could not stay on the wheel and the group started to drive away from me, even though later I could see I had hit 50 mph. Being a poor sprinter meant I was working way too hard trying to catch them. I was actually making some progress and starting to close the gap. It was a race between either burning myself out or latching back on. I should have known better and backed off sooner and saved the legs for the many miles ahead. You can see from this graph, my heart rate was running in the red zone going DOWN the hill trying to get connected to the lead riders (click to enlarge).

Soon after I realized I would not be able to close the gap, I was passed by a younger faster rider wearing a Furnace Creek 508 jersey. We worked together, although he was taking longer pulls. For awhile we were starting to gain on the lead group, but you can only drive that hard for so long. Soon the group ahead was vanishing from sight. I had lost my route sheet on the fast descent so I was not sure where the next turn was. The fellow 508 rider pulled his from his back pocket and started to read it. I road in the center of the road to give him space but even with that he cross wheels with me as he was looking at the sheet. Suddenly he was down, and extremely upset about it. But this was one tough dude. Even with some road rash and torn cycling shorts, he got back on his bike and we started off again. Just then we were pasted by the fourth tandem, along with a couple of other riders drafting behind them.. We jumped in the group and stayed with them for a few miles, but they stopped and the first rest stop so we went on without them. Only one other rider skipped the stop and rode with us, another one wearing a Furnace Creek 508 jersey. Kind of like 3 FC 508 guys, but the others were much younger and stronger than I was. Several miles down the road, as we were making a right turn, a group was coming back toward us, having missed the turn themselves.

Yes, I thought. I was now back with a larger group. I moved up toward the front of the group not wanting to get dropped on some of the rollers ahead. I thought I would be able to stay with them until the 2nd rest stop, but my legs were burning from trying to catch the lead riders earlier. It just didn’t seem worth the effort, so after about 5 miles I let them go and started riding solo, something I would do for much of the rest of the event.

I was a bit worried without a route sheet but eventually did catch a couple of other riders. Having no route sheet, I wanted to stay with them so I did not get lost. Although I wanted to go a bit faster, I was afraid I would miss a turn, so I ended up mostly pulling.. The problem is that this small group did miss the turn and we went about 3 miles before we realized it. So by the time we got back on course we had biked an extra 6 miles.

Just as we got back on the course I saw Paul D. He rode with us for a mile or so but then started to cramp and dropped off. Soon after that we passed Louise. Once I knew I had made the final turn before the second rest stop, I moved ahead and rode solo. At the second rest stop I saw that I had averaged only about 19 mph, compared with close to 22 mph last year when I had stayed with the lead group, but this year I had now biked 92 miles before stopping for food and water. I guess that was some sort of record for me.

It might have been my imagination but there seemed to be more headwind. I was riding that stretch along Highway 1 toward Moro Bay by myself into the wind. About 6 miles from Moro Bay a group of about 8 riders came up from behind, so I joined them. I saw a couple of riders ahead, both wearing the same jersey. As we passed them, I could see it was Art and Patrice. I stayed with the small group until the lunch stop. I was thinking to keep with them, but they were taking longer eating their sandwich than I wanted to wait so I headed out alone. I never saw them again until I was waiting at the finish after taking a shower, so it is a good thing I didn’t stick with them.

Several miles before the 4th rest stop, while waiting at a traffic light, the 4th tandem came up, the one that had stopped at the first rest stop. They had only one other rider with them, so I joined the small group. The two of us on single bikes would take turns doing some pulling. As we kept passing riders, they were jumping on the train, but they were all wheel suckers. I took another pull and tried to move back into the group but these wheel suckers would not let me in, wanting to keep their spot. Forget them I thought, and I just went ahead and dropped the entire group, again riding solo. At the 4th rest stop I saw Gary S. and Gary B, who were about ready to leave.

After mostly solo riding, I finally made it to the the last rest stop where I saw Chuck, who had started at 6 am. By now I had passed all the other club riders, except of course Gary F. and Barley and Susan on the tandem. I knew Gary was probably about two hours ahead of me, which meant he was already enjoying the finish line. Ann was there and took his picture.

Gary at Finish

I didn’t spend much time at the last rest stop, knowing the end was not far. It was up Drum Canyon Hill, a part I really like. I enjoy climbing this hill and passing all the other riders who hate to climb, especially after 180 miles. But unlike last year when I was climbing at full speed to make some time, I kept it much easier. I made the turn on the final highway, with the slight uphill and then the down hill. While going down, I was passed by the 4th tandem and a bunch of riders. I had to accelerate quickly but was able to finally close the gap. I rode with them to the end. I knew the tandem started at 7:30 but I think most of the rest of the group had started earlier.

Franz at finish

I finally made it to the finish, taking a total of 11:16, which was more than a hour slower than last year. Part of that was due to riding an extra 6 miles and part was from doing a lot more solo riding. I still felt I was working hard and when I looked at my data later, my average heart rate was even higher than last year. Of course that might be because I am just getting older. These two tables show a comparison with my prior Solvang Doubles. My stopping time at the rest stops was a bit more than last year but the crash did cost me some time while I helped the rider back up on his bike. Overall I am happy with how I did. A little older, a little slower, but still riding alongside the young bucks. My only regret was even though I was slower, I never did see any roses to smell.

My thanks to Anne for taking all the photos in this blog. See all her photos of Slovang here.

Categories: Ultra Distance Events
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Death Valley received its name in 1849 during the California Gold Rush. It was called Death Valley by prospectors and others who sought to cross the valley on their way to the gold fields. I realized how much has changed since then until today when numerous cyclists cross death valley each year.

Late last year I received an email that they had just opened registration for the Death Valley “Spring” Double and right after that I got a call from Gary F. telling me he was signing up. In an impulsive moment I went on their website and signed up, just before they reached their 300 rider limit in the first hour. Then I was starting to wonder how I was going to get ready. I was going to be traveling a lot in November and December and that left only two months to get in shape. It was kind of like cramming for a final, except the body can only develop so fast. So during the first two months of 2009 I biked more miles than I ever had so early in the year. Although I did not feel like I was fully prepared, I was close to the training program I had laid out for myself for the first two doubles this year.

On Friday Gary, Louise and myself carpooled down to Furnace Creek. After a 500 mile, 9 hour drive, we finally arrived at the Furnace Creek Ranch Lodge where Gary and I were sharing a room. As often happens on these type of events, I did not sleep that well. I woke up at 1:30 am and not quite sure if I ever went back to sleep. Gary and I decided to try to get in with the first wave of riders so we were up early and to the start line by 5:45. But they had 50 people already there and they held us back to start 10 minutes later with the second group. I was not too worried about that but I knew that it meant Gary would need to bridge the 10 minute gap somehow to catch the fastest riders ahead.

It was just getting light as we started off at 6:10. Riding in the desert at sunrise is something so beautiful that it is impossible to explain and needs to be experienced. In the foreground was the vast expanse of Death Valley and looming far in the distant was the Sierra Mountains, with snow caps on Mt. Whitney.

In our group of 50 I saw a couple on a tandem, but not just any tandem. It was a very high priced racing tandem and they were both wearing Everest Challenge Jerseys. That is the State Climbing Championship I participated in last year so I figured I could draft behind them. But they turned out to be not fast enough and I eventually went past them. Not too long after that we formed a pace line of about 9 riders and worked together for about 40 miles when we stopped for water and food.

Franz is one in Orange 508 jersey

I made a quick stop and decided to go ahead without the group since we would be climbing up Jubilee within 7 miles. From that point on it was mostly solo riding for me.

This double is two parts, the first part is out to Shoshone and back to Furnace Creek. This is stage 4 on the Furnace Creek 508, but both times I was the “A” rider so I had not cycled on these roads. So instead of being sleepy eyed in the support van watching Paul V. bike in the middle of the night, I had the chance to ride in the daylight. It was wonderful weather, not too hot, not too cold, not too sunny and not too cloudy. I could not have asked for better cycling weather.

When I got to the base of Jubilee, I noticed that I had already “climbed” over 1,500 feet, which showed how many rollers we went over. Jubilee Summit was at 1,290 feet and then after a short descent it was a very long climb up Salsberry. I passed several riders during the climb up to 3,300 feet at the summit. I guess these were all riders in the group that had started 10 minutes before us. I could see a tandem ahead and was thinking if I could catch it before the summit I could follow it down the other side. I was able to make a connection just before we hit the crest and attempted to keep in their slipstream as we zoomed down the hill. I finally found myself pedaling as fast as I could and watched them slowly slip away from me even though they were “coasting”. “Wait a minute” I thought, I still had a long way to go so I gave up the chase.

After we leveled out I found myself in a stiff headwind, bringing my speed down to 11 mph. I was starting to worry because the winds last year during this event had caused a high DNF rate. But the wind lasted for only about 10 miles and although it seemed to always be a head wind for the rest of the ride, they were not that strong. I made a quick stop at Shoshone and headed back. On the climb back up Salsberry, I saw the same tandem again but found it easy this time to catch them. Again I tried to keep in their slipstream down the very long descent but once again I finally gave up.

It is breathtaking to descend from over 3,315 feet down to below sea level. Once I was back down to the valley floor, it was a short ride back to the rest stop to get more water. From there I had about 30 miles to reach Badwater, where there was a lunch stop. That seemed like the longest 30 miles. I was on the verge of bonking and was out of water as I pulled into Badwater. Badwater is a basin in Death Valley and is the lowest point in the US with an elevation of 282 feet below sea level. It was also for me the lowest point in the ride.

I realized I needed a break so sat there for nearly 19 minutes enjoying a sandwich, a coke, and a V-8. I was now feeling much better and headed off. I grouped with two other riders, one was wearing a Furnace Creek 508 jersey from last year. I had been with him early in the day with the small pace line we had formed. I was chatting with him and he indicated that he had only been on the bike 4 times since last October’s Furnace Creek 508. “Wow”, I thought, how could he do that. He said he had been swimming and running. I asked him if by chance he had run the Badwater Ultra marathon, put on by the same group putting on this event and the 508. “Yes”, he said, “4 times”. This is the hardest running race I know of, covering 135 miles non-stop from Death Valley to Mt. Whitney. He said he had finished 4 times and had completed both the Badwater Ultra Marathon and FC 508 solo in the same year (his totem is Desert Duck). He is only the second person I met who had completed both events and the first to do it multiple times.

I reached Furnace Creek for another stop, I saw Gary’s coach there who had already finished. That meant he had finished the last 50 miles out to Stovepipe Wells and back before I even started out. Yikes, I guess I had better get going. So after a 10 minutes stop I headed on, riding solo once again.

I was now riding on the same road I had ridden twice during the FC 508, except in reverse. What surprised me was that this road had a lot of rollers. When doing the 508 I always thought this section was flat. Doing it in the dark made it hard to see the ups and downs and I had thought the difference in effort required was due to the shifting winds. But now I was measuring as much as a 300 ft. change in elevation through the rollers. About 5 miles from the turn around one fellow did pass me so I jumped on his wheel for awhile. Then I felt like I could pull and went around him. A mile or so later I glanced back and he had fallen way off the back so I just went ahead by myself. I finally reached Stovepipe Wells, which is right at sea level.

At the turn around point they offered me a cup of noodles. Hum, that sounded good so I sat down and enjoyed it since I wanted to make sure I had enough energy to finish. After a 13 minute rest, I decided to bike to the finish. It was getting late in the day so I decided to turn on my lights before I headed back to Furnace Creek for the last 25 miles of the ride. One fellow joined me but he had a simple CAT-eye light so he enjoyed following me with my bright light. I was thinking he liked following me a bit too much because he never took a pull. Oh well, at least in the dark it was safer to have two riders together.

I finally pulled into Furnace Creek at 7:30 pm, for a total time of 13:20. Gary, who had finished two hours earlier, was there to meet me. I was happy I was done. Not long after I finished the fellow with the totem Desert Duck pulled in. I asked him if he was going to do the Badwater Ultramarathon and FC 508 again this year. He said he was taking it off because he was going to do a triple Iron Man instead. “Yikes”, I said, “what is a triple Iron Man?” He said it was “7.5 mile swim, then 336 mile bike and 78 mile run.” But he added, “I have 60 hours to finish”. I started to feel like a wimp for having a hard time finishing only 200 miles on the bike.

Desert Duck

After eating some more food, I headed to the room to take a shower and then went back out to the front to wait for Louise. I slept well that night. Checking my data later I found I had averaged 16 mph over the course of 197 miles and 9,300 feet of climbing. My total stopping time was about 1 hour. Although I had not pushed myself as hard as I had on some other doubles, overall I was happy with how I did. Maybe I should be thinking about doing a triple Iron-man, NOT!

Route

Elevation Profile

Categories: Ultra Distance Events
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I am off to Death Valley tomorrow do to the Death Valley Double on Saturday. If I finish the event, it will be the first time that I biked 2,000 miles and climbed 100,000 feet by the end of February. Although it is not quite up to my aggressive training plan, it is still more than I have done in the past. It is not often that at an age of 60 that you reach a new milestone in sports.

Categories: Training Log, Ultra Distance Events
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Yikes, what have I done? I was kind of feeling a bit let down since 2008 was winding to an end. I did more ultra distance riding this year than any year in the past. But I was not sure what I wanted to do in 2009. I was not sure I even wanted to do another double century. But I couldn’t resist. Gary F. called me and said he was doing the Death Valley Double and had just signed up. This event is put on by the same people who put on the Furnace Creek 508 ride and it covers some of the same roads. I know this event sells out in hours so I had to decide quickly if I was going to do it. As I said, I could not resist. I am not quite sure how I am going to get ready during the winter for such a tough ride at the end of February. Oh my, what have I done?

You can see from these charts that although I have biked a LOT of miles and climbed a lot of feet this year, it has really tapered off with the vacation and such. I am not sure I can ramp it up until January, which is too close to the event.

Categories: Ultra Distance Events
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